AT&T revamp of LTE network will help customers switch to small carriers

Taking your AT&T device to a competitor will be easier.

Companies like AT&T generally aren't in the business of making it easier for customers to switch to competitors. But a new plan from the company will do just that.

Potentially resolving battles between AT&T and competitors over interoperability in the 700MHz band, AT&T informed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) yesterday that it intends to revamp its LTE network to be interoperable with networks of smaller carriers. As a result, a customer could switch from AT&T to a smaller carrier such as US Cellular or C Spire and be able to use the new network and roam on AT&T's network.

"This makes it possible for AT&T customers to maintain their devices if they were to switch to a smaller wireless carrier," Public Knowledge CEO Gigi Sohn said in a statement. "Enabling standards of interoperability at the lower 700MHz band gives consumers the chance to use their devices with large and small wireless carriers without purchasing a new device."

The agreement ends a four-year dispute, according to the Competitive Carriers Association. The group praised FCC Acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn for getting it done. "In particular, lower A block licensees like US Cellular and C Spire Wireless will finally be able to use all of their lower 700 MHz spectrum, unleashing investment and innovation, helping to achieve the Administration’s goal of universal access to mobile broadband," the Competitive Carriers Association wrote. "In turn, every consumer, especially rural and disadvantaged consumers who lack access to high-speed broadband, will benefit from her efforts.”

Competitors had asked the FCC to make the entire 700MHz band interoperable, according to an article on DSLReports. Besides solving the roaming problem, a lack of interoperability makes it less likely that handset makers will build devices that work with smaller carriers' networks, they argued. "AT&T long fought the changes, citing 'interference concerns' competitors argued didn't exist," DSLReports noted.

AT&T's FCC filing explains that it will support both Band 12 and Band 17 devices going forward, helping smaller carriers that use Band 12.

AT&T, which also just bought some more spectrum from Verizon, writes that its "700 MHz LTE network, which is expected to provide coverage to nearly 270 million consumers in 400 markets by the end of 2013, currently supports only Band 17 devices. Band 12 support on AT&T’s network will require that AT&T deploy a new network technology that will permit simultaneous support of both Band 12 and Band 17 devices. Absent this dual support, millions of pre-existing Band 17 devices currently in use by AT&T’s customers would be stranded.

"To achieve this, AT&T must develop, implement, and deploy throughout its network Multi-Frequency Band Indicator or MFBI capabilities. MFBI will permit AT&T’s network to operate simultaneously as both a Band 12 and Band 17 network and to support devices in both bands."

This can be implemented with a software update. AT&T promises to fully deploy the system within two years. In the first year, 50 percent of new devices on the spectrum will work in Band 12.

The promises are contingent on interference concerns being addressed. "AT&T reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to plan and manage lower 700 MHz interoperability support in a manner that will not disrupt existing services, strand existing devices, or result in unnecessary cost or delay," the company said.

But it's still "a big win for consumers, especially in rural areas, who will see more competition and more choices," Clyburn said.

Promoted Comments

To make it clearer what the change is: Band 17 LTE (what ATT currently uses) operates on 704-716 mhz (up) and 734-746mhz (down). Band 12 is a superset of band 17 and operates on 698-716 and 728-746 mhz. In terms of the FCC auction, band 17 is the lower B and C blocks; band 12 adds the lower A block. ATT's new hardware will allow it to send/receive 12mhz wide data streams to band 17 phones and 18mhz wide ones to band 12 phones at the same time.

27 Reader Comments

This sounds great. Allowing smaller carriers to roam on their network is a huge win for those carriers, as the biggest road block to a lot of people is spotty service. Personally, I have always been willing to pay more for better service, but if I can get comparable service for a smaller carrier it is a no-brainer.

I'm not buying anymore phones until I can get an unlocked model that works on any carrier of my choice... my iPhone 4 is getting long in the tooth, but at least I pay half of what I would under contract.

Is it just a complete technical infeasibility to have a phone that can connect to all the networks?

I'm not buying anymore phones until I can get an unlocked model that works on any carrier of my choice... my iPhone 4 is getting long in the tooth, but at least I pay half of what I would under contract.

Is it just a complete technical infeasibility to have a phone that can connect to all the networks?

Interoperability between CDMA and GSM is remarkably difficult due to the different natures of the networks themselves. I think LTE is making strides to fix that though.

I'm not buying anymore phones until I can get an unlocked model that works on any carrier of my choice... my iPhone 4 is getting long in the tooth, but at least I pay half of what I would under contract.

Is it just a complete technical infeasibility to have a phone that can connect to all the networks?

for the cost of current phones yes. The problem stopping you from going to any carrier is that the US uses 2 different standards in addition to the various bands in use.

To make it clearer what the change is: Band 17 LTE (what ATT currently uses) operates on 704-716 mhz (up) and 734-746mhz (down). Band 12 is a superset of band 17 and operates on 698-716 and 728-746 mhz. In terms of the FCC auction, band 17 is the lower B and C blocks; band 12 adds the lower A block. ATT's new hardware will allow it to send/receive 12mhz wide data streams to band 17 phones and 18mhz wide ones to band 12 phones at the same time.

To make it clearer what the change is: Band 17 LTE (what ATT currently uses) operates on 704-716 mhz (up) and 734-746mhz (down). Band 12 is a superset of band 17 and operates on 698-716 and 728-746 mhz. In terms of the FCC auction, band 17 is the lower B and C blocks; band 12 adds the lower A block. ATT's new hardware will allow it to send/receive 12mhz wide data streams to band 17 phones and 18mhz wide ones to band 12 phones at the same time.

ATT's new hardware will allow it to send/receive 12mhz wide data streams to band 17 phones and 18mhz wide ones to band 12 phones at the same time.

I didn't think anyone actually owned the entire 12 band, though. The smaller carriers bought some A block, AT&T bought most of the B and C blocks, and that was it. Why would AT&T ever have to send the entire 12 band to a single phone? And furthermore, why would an AT&T tower need the ability to broadcast on frequencies (A block) that AT&T doesn't even own??? I was under the impression this was all about phone hardware and nothing else.

Does this mean folks who now have phones on smaller carriers will eventually be able to roam onto AT&T's data network (LTE, I presume) without needing a new phone? If so, in addition to making newer phones down the road portable, it's a pretty big deal.

I wish there was an easy way to tell which licenses have been deployed, and on which towers. Plus ... which carriers (or MVNOs) are enabled on said tower.

I know the FCC has some data about cellular, and potentially on which towers are active, but this gets really difficult to connect all the dots, so that a potential consumer can tell if LTE is actually up in their area.

I'm hoping this works in reverse of what the article mentioned, so that (edit: customers of) smaller carriers can then roam on AT&T's existing towers. Hope they work out the firmware in a relatively quick time though, because small carriers are getting left with no options for roaming at all when it comes to "4G"

Can the FCC not force them to have this interoperability? It seems to me that since AT&T is renting that wireless spectrum from the governement, and by proxy their customers, the FCC could make them not screw people over with devices that don't work on carriers that piggyback off their network hardware.

To sum it up, basically instead of forcing the manufactures to sell AT&T only devices that are band 17 ONLY compatible, they are easing up their restriction and will allow them to sell devices that are band 12 compatible instead(since band 12 includes band 17 + more).

This is different than their current anti-AWS campaign, hence why if you buy a TMO iPhone, you get AWS support, but if you buy an AT&T iPhone you don't. It's not hardware, it's purely software/political reasoning.

ATT's new hardware will allow it to send/receive 12mhz wide data streams to band 17 phones and 18mhz wide ones to band 12 phones at the same time.

I didn't think anyone actually owned the entire 12 band, though. The smaller carriers bought some A block, AT&T bought most of the B and C blocks, and that was it. Why would AT&T ever have to send the entire 12 band to a single phone? And furthermore, why would an AT&T tower need the ability to broadcast on frequencies (A block) that AT&T doesn't even own??? I was under the impression this was all about phone hardware and nothing else.

Ooops, it looks like you're partially correct and it probably is mostly a hardware/software change. Just my luck that I get a comment featured and it has a stupid mistake. *sigh*

ATT was buying Band 17 only hardware which resulted in very little hardware being made that supported the Band 12 leaving the smaller companies without vendors selling compatible equipment. Presumably the change is that ATT is going to order Band 12 hardware going forward; which will require the hardware manufacturers to make equipment compatible with the smaller carriers A band systems.

LTE bands are a mess and I didn't follow through in enough detail the first time. *sigh*

ATT currently only owns a single A block (covering parts of coastal North and South Carolina) and will be getting a second when their acquisition of Cricket is complete; but otherwise only has lower B spectrum (704-710, and 728-734). The upper 6mhz segments of Bands 12 and 17 aren't available for LTE usage in the US. The FCC E block (722-728)

I'm not buying anymore phones until I can get an unlocked model that works on any carrier of my choice... my iPhone 4 is getting long in the tooth, but at least I pay half of what I would under contract.

Is it just a complete technical infeasibility to have a phone that can connect to all the networks?

If you mean a mix of cdma, evdo, and gsm, yeah, that is work. If you mean quad band or penta band, LTE, then it isn't that hard. The iphone5s claims 11 LTE bands. Reality, who knows.

On my z10, I can see ATT, Tmob, and Metro PCS LTE. I can't see Verizon LTE though the firmware has hooks for a 2nd LTE service.

We may be another couple of years away from similar solutions available from all the radio chip vendors. But once this sort of thing becomes a commodity then LTE seems like a good plateau to build upon for the rest of the decade. Perhaps by then hardware interoperability problems may become a thing of the past, in that all but the most dirt-cheap subsidized handsets will be able run on any network.

while I know that launch day att iphone 5 did NOT do T-mo LTE, the kinda-recent T-mo iPhone 5 could do both ATT and T-mo...so what about similar-vintage att iPhone 5...will those now work with T-mo?

an argument why yes is that it's cheapest for apple to have one ATT/T-mo LTE compatible model.

why I ask...because I can see myself jumping ship from ATT to t-mo, and it could be soon (buy an unlocked t-mo 5S) or later (buy a locked att 5S but jump ship later on after paying ETF and getting unlocked).

I would like to have the ability to jump back to ATT from T-mo if in the future ATT follows the lead and starts giving a BYOD discount.

Also, if LTE "band" numbers aren't the whole story (look at apple's iphone LTE page - google for iPhone let and it's link#1). So the ATT/T-mo model, A1533(GSM) looks identical to model 1453 except that the latter includes bands 18 and 26. So including two extra bands probably means that something else changes in the other supported bands. I just submit that if giving band numbers with explanatory notations ("700b MHz") isn't enough to judge compatibility, then a new/better/more-descriptive system is needed to describe this LTE mess.

Somehow I read this article as, "We're positioning ourselves to purchase a number of smaller providers in an effort to keep up with Verizon." and not as the consumer win that the article makes it out to be. I'm cynical though.

We may be another couple of years away from similar solutions available from all the radio chip vendors. But once this sort of thing becomes a commodity then LTE seems like a good plateau to build upon for the rest of the decade. Perhaps by then hardware interoperability problems may become a thing of the past, in that all but the most dirt-cheap subsidized handsets will be able run on any network.

This is actually a pretty informative link on the apple site. It shows which model supports which bands in which countries.

I think there is also an issue about antenna design in he phone. It is difficult to pack in enough antennas tuned to all the different frequencies.

I really wish the FCC would require all phones all towers to support at least one band just for maximizing coverage. There are too many areas, including US Highways and state and national parks with no covere at all.

We may be another couple of years away from similar solutions available from all the radio chip vendors. But once this sort of thing becomes a commodity then LTE seems like a good plateau to build upon for the rest of the decade. Perhaps by then hardware interoperability problems may become a thing of the past, in that all but the most dirt-cheap subsidized handsets will be able run on any network.

This is actually a pretty informative link on the apple site. It shows which model supports which bands in which countries.

I think there is also an issue about antenna design in he phone. It is difficult to pack in enough antennas tuned to all the different frequencies.

I really wish the FCC would require all phones all towers to support at least one band just for maximizing coverage. There are too many areas, including US Highways and state and national parks with no covere at all.

I don't think any vendor these days uses one antenna per band. Modern cell phones use an antenna tuner. Paratech is one vendor of a tuner chip.

This is footnote 3 from the iphone 5 page. -------------LTE band support is based on the iPhone 5 model number and configuration for either CDMA or GSM networks. Listed LTE band support does not guarantee LTE support by all carriers running on the same bands. LTE wireless service availability may be limited even where bands are supported.-------

I was kind of shocked when I saw Apple listing a dozen LTE bands. The footnote indicates you won't really get all the bands.

Being a veteran of AT&T's customer disservice for over 20 years, I'd be scared anytime they offered to do something for the consume that didn't line their pockets. They are to communications what BofA is to banking.

Compatible? 2021 or so, when Verizon has shut off CDMA and AT&T has shut off 2G/3G GSM (except for a tiny bit for roaming).

That said, the main US iPhone model support both band 13 (Verizon), band 17 LTE (AT&T), and band 4 LTE (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile). And the phones support GSM and CDMA. So if you buy a 5C or 5S, and then in two years unlock, you should be able to take it between AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile.

Compatible? 2021 or so, when Verizon has shut off CDMA and AT&T has shut off 2G/3G GSM (except for a tiny bit for roaming).

That said, the main US iPhone model support both band 13 (Verizon), band 17 LTE (AT&T), and band 4 LTE (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile). And the phones support GSM and CDMA. So if you buy a 5C or 5S, and then in two years unlock, you should be able to take it between AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile.

Sorry Sprint fans.

I thought all voice calls were still going over the CDMA/GSM networks and not the new LTE ones.

According to this article you won't be able to get voice over LTE until 2015 in the US.

I'm also cynical about this news. It's a PR stunt, IMHO. The reality is they want the smaller carriers to be able to roam on their towers so they can make more money off them. We may be in an era of "no roaming fees" for the consumer but make no mistake, money still changes hands over these agreements.

It reminds me of the days when GSM was really taking off in the US and dozens of little regional networks got built out by these companies that didn't actually sell service to consumers, their only income was off roamers. I remember several cross country trips with my Tmo phone where I could select one, two or even occasionally three roaming networks at a time in the southwest out in the middle of nowhere. (As an aside, I miss those days when I could actually see whose network I was on, instead of the way AT&T masks everyone with "AT&T" on the screen these days.

I was on C Spire for two miserable years and had to roam on Verizon's 3G network outside the parent company's small footprint. It was horrible, and I don't expect LTE roaming with AT&T to be much different. Verizon throttled roamers down to sub-dialup speeds on data, ostensibly to combat saturation. It made the phone useless for anything but phone calls outside the home network. And who makes phone calls anymore?